Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ITALY NOT AT THE WORLD CUP? THAT'S PASTA JOKE
Azzurri are in crisis and Ravanelli admits: I couldn’t watch it without us
ACCORDING to legend, San Siro (Saint Syrus) was the boy who brought a basket of bread and fish to Jesus before the miracle of feeding the 5,000.
Tonight in the Milan stadium known by his name, the whole of footballmad Italy will be praying for more divine intervention to avoid a summer of purgatory.
Only once, way back in 1958, have the Azzurri failed to qualify for the World Cup.
But after Friday night’s unholy 1-0 defeat by Sweden in the first leg of the playoffs, the four-time winners are 90 minutes from the stigma of making more unwanted history.
Even the 1966 team pelted with tomatoes after losing to North Korea reached the finals in England.
Fabrizio Ravanelli, who helped Italy win their only previous playoff against Russia in
1997, said: “I wouldn’t watch a
World Cup without Italy.”
There is no doubt who will get the blame if Italy are not back in Moscow next summer. Since the Solna defeat, there have been calls to replace journeyman coach Gian Piero Ventura (below) with Carlo Ancelotti or previous boss Antonio Conte even if they qualify.
At Euro 2016, Conte inspired an ordinary squad to beat Belgium, Sweden and Spain before only losing to Germany on penalties in the quarter-finals.
In World Cup qualifying, Ventura deployed a suicidal 4-2-4 formation while losing 3-0 to Spain before drawing at home with Macedonia – and had to deny leading players like Gigi Buffon had called a crisis meeting without his knowledge.
The Italy coach has failed to find a role for the in-form Lorenzo Insigne and the Napoli forward only came off the bench for the last 15 minutes in Solna.
Sweden full-back Emil Krafth admitted: “Obviously I preferred to be up against Matteo Darmian instead of Insigne.”
Sweden won through a deflected shot from Jakob Johansson, but set the tone after 30 seconds when Ola Toivonen elbowed Leonardo Bonucci and broke his nose.
Striker Marcus Berg, who was booked within 50 seconds, said after the match: “I knew there would be war tonight and it will be a damn war on Monday.” Ventura added: “I hope that in Milan the officials give to us what they granted to them here.”
The only previous time Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup was after losing 2-1 to Northern Ireland in freezing Belfast in January 1958.
Centre-forward Gino Pivatelli, now 84, recalled: “It was shameful.
“Afterwards I cried all night – for the lost opportunity and very much for shame. I missed a chance because I slipped close to the goal because I had the wrong studs on.
“It is a game I still cannot believe. Even now, I still dream about that missed chance.
“If I had scored, it would have maybe changed the history of Italian football. I hope we stay the only ones in history not to qualify.”
Italy came closest 20 years ago when 19-year-old Buffon came off the bench to make his debut in snowy Moscow as his side drew 1-1 before Chelsea’s Pierluigi Casiraghi scored the winner in the return leg.
The Juventus goalkeeper, who will win his 175th cap tonight, could now go full circle and finish his international career in the playoffs as he had planned to retire after a sixth World Cup.
“The important thing is the result is the same as in 1997,” said Buffon.
His former team-mate Ravanelli added: “Our players have to be aware that Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup in Russia would be a catastrophe.
“I don’t even want to think about it. Winning is important not only for the players, but for the whole country. Can you imagine a World Cup without Italy? I can’t.”